


A Little Craft Project

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Bonding, Damian is attempting to be a good little brother, Dick Grayson is Batman, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Reminiscing, Scrapbooks, implied DickBabs past tense, photo album
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 13:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11291919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: Dick has been in a bad mood for a while and Damian can't figure out how to fix it, so he goes to the one person he's sure can help. Barbara Gordon.





	A Little Craft Project

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a request on Tumblr

Damian Wayne prided himself on being self sufficient. He’d been able to take out a squad of his mother’s assassins at age four. Had developed an immunity to most poisonous plants and animals a year later. He had survived multiple different abandonment in the wilderness exercises, and had enough money in his own accounts to survive any modern disaster that might befall him.

He did not like asking for help. He was not the kind of person to need it. Not with his training, not with his abilities, nor with his mind. He hadn’t needed help before, and if he found himself in a situation where it was required, he worked until it no longer was.

That was then. With Mother. Now that he was in Gotham, things were different. There was, of course, new experiences and customs to take in, and things he was forced to learn in dealing both with the people of Gotham and his new place as Robin. Still, help was a rare need in his life and growing more so with every acquired skill.

Which is why he hated the idea of even standing outside the Gordon woman’s door, and why he berated himself for considering asking for her help. As it was, he had no other alternative. He’d tried everything in his power to resolve the situation, and thus had to turn to an expert.

“Are you planning on standing there all day, or are you going to knock?”

Damian resisted the urge to jump at the voice from the buzzer. Of course she’d be watching him, the woman had probably been laughing at him for the last five minutes as he’d tried to convince himself this truly was the best course of action. It didn’t help that her voice had sounded both vaguely irritated and amused.

He scowled up in the general direction of where he thought the camera might be. “Grayson has told me that spying is looked down on here.”

“So is loitering.”

Damian had listened to Barbara over the comms long enough to hear the amusement still in her voice, layered under the disapproval she seemed to be portraying.

He crossed his arms and finally caught sight of light glinting off the camera above him, allowing him to look at it directly. “I have a purpose for my visit, Gordon.”

“I hope it’s not for surveillance, if so I need to have a talk with Dick, he’s been teaching you wrong.”

Damian rolled his eyes up at her, “Grayson doesn’t need to teach me surveillance skills, Mother taught me when I was three.”

“Then you must be rusty, it took you too long to find my camera.”

“Tt.” Damian said, but she was right.

He should have discovered the camera far sooner than he had. He’d let his thoughts and emotions distract him. If he’d been Robin and surveilling a place against criminals he’d have been caught already. They wouldn’t allow him to lose himself in his thoughts for minutes. He found that he was mad both at himself and at Barbara for pointing out his failing. He glared at the camera.

“This is useless. I don’t know why I thought you’d be any kind of assistance.” He grumbled.

“Come on, Damian. I was joking.” Barbara’s voice was apologetic now. “Your one of the first ones to catch the camera there.”

The door in front of him swung open and Barbara waved at him from the couch further in. “Don’t just stand there.”

He stayed put. “I only caught it because you pointed it out.”

Barbara rolled her eyes. “Kid, Dick couldn’t find it until I pointed it out to him. Now come in and tell me what’s bugging you so much you feel like you’ve let your guard down.”

He scowled and stepped inside, the door swinging shut behind him. Gordon had him pegged, though he didn’t feel he’d let his guard down, he  _ knew _ he’d done it. Barbra pointed at an armchair for him to take.

“So, what had you not-loitering at my door?”

He sat and could see the joke in her face now, and found himself a bit embarrassed he hadn’t caught that either. He truly must be getting rusty, either that or he was more distracted than he cared to admit.

“It is about Grayson.” Damian said and watched emotions flit over Barbara’s face.

There was worry, then the calculating thought that Damian would have been in a worse state if anything terrible had happened, ease, longing, and finally curiosity. It took a second, maybe two before she was nodding.

She closed her laptop and set it on the side table by the couch before turning her attention fully on him, “Alright, what about Dick?”

Damian tugged his jacket, straightening the zipper, “Grayson has been unhappy lately,” He said scrunching his nose, “and despite my best efforts I haven’t been able to rouse him from his mood.”

Barbara smiled at him, “And you wanted to ask me if I knew anything you could do to help?”

“I would not be here if I had another option.” Damian said, pushing himself further into the chair instead of crossing his arms. He was attempting to ask for assistance, not anger Gordon, and a defensive stance wouldn’t help. Not that burying his body in the plush chair would either, but it was the better option.

Barbara’s smile didn’t grow any larger, but her eyes glittered with glee, almost forcing a scowl on to Damian’s face. He wanted to be anywhere but here. But Grayson’s mood had not only been affecting his home life, but his patrolling as well making things dangerous for him. Damian was supposed to keep Batman safe, and he couldn’t do that with a distracted partner just begging to get hurt because his mind was in a different place.

He wouldn’t tell Gordon, but Grayson’s mood was affecting him in other ways. Damian was used to the man’s overbearing excitement and optimism. A Grayson bogged down by a heavy cloud was  _ wrong _ . He was lethargic and easily irritated by anything Damian did, even when he wasn’t trying to be difficult. The impatience and irritation directed at him was not pleasant. He was used to it from everyone else except Grayson. Getting it from him stung in a way Damian had not expected. Even Alfred wasn’t immune to the occasional snap from him. And this woman was the only one he knew could do something about it.

He huffed at her, “So, can you help or not?”

“I think I can.”

They discussed a few things that could be bothering Dick and possible solutions to the issue, with Barbara finally suggesting making a photo album.

Damian frowned. “I don’t see how a bunch of pictures will be of any use.”

“It’s been a tough year, Damian. A reminder of happier times, with a promise of more to come is sure to help him.” Barbara said, pulling herself into her chair. “Besides, it’s not so much the scrapbook, but who made it. The meaning behind the action.” 

With how impatient and grumpy Grayson had been lately Damian couldn’t find it in himself to accept the idea that anything he made would cheer Grayson up through the idea that he’d done it, but he believed Gordon when she said the pictures themselves would help.

He nodded. “Fine, where do we start?” 

Damian expected Barbara to open her laptop and select images from there. Instead she sent him to retrieve a large cardboard box from her storage closet while she went in search of an album. When he returned, she was back on the couch and had found the book, scissors, tape, and an assortment of colored pens. 

“This is beginning to look like a craft project.” Damian said, eyeing the supplies.

Barbara grinned at him. “That’s because it is. Did you think we were going to pick out some pictures and have Walgreens print a book? That doesn’t say love and care at all, not to Dick at least.”

Damian grumbled, but set the box next to the coffee table and perched on the couch cushion beside Barbara. He knew the basic premise behind what they were doing, collecting an assortment of pictures intended to cheer Grayson, but he was unsure of how to proceed. This was one of the reason’s he’d come to Gordon in the first place. She had known Grayson far longer than Damian had, and thus knew which pictures would have the correct sentimental value to him. As it was, the few he’d glimpsed from the top of the box were alien to him. The holes in his knowledge of Grayson were frustrating, but also understandable. 

“Go ahead and pull out a few handfuls to sort on the table.” Barbara said, opening the album’s cover to the first empty page. 

They spent the next half hour sorting pictures into different piles, ones where Dick was in the pictures and others where he was absent. In costume and out of costume. Robin, and Nightwing. Though his different costumes didn’t seem to require further sorting beyond name. 

“What,” he said holding up a picture for Barbara to see, “is he wearing here? And who allowed him to do so?” 

The picture showed Dick in a blue high collared costume accented with yellow. Barbara took it from him with a laugh. 

“It’s pretty bad, isnt it?” she asked, setting the photo on the table and shuffling some other pictures in search of something else. “But it’s not his worst fashion disaster.”  

She pulled two more pictures off the table. The first featured a similar costume, without the high collar and Dick’s hair styled in a mullet. The second had him out of costume, hair styled the same, and wearing high waisted jeans with a collared shirt tucked into it. The outfit wouldn’t be terrible if the shirt hadn’t been covered with overlarge polka dots in green, maroon, and purple. 

Damian’s mouth quirked into a smile. “I wondered why Pennyworth always critiqued his outfit choices.” 

“He’s never had much style. Though, to be fair a lot of this was popular back then.” She smiled down at the pictures. “Let’s put this in his greatest hits section.” she said moving them over to a smaller pile. 

“I always liked his last uniform best, you saw it before he donned the cape and cowl. The blue and black one, with stripes on his fingers.” 

She was shuffling through them again, probably looking for an example. Her hand brushed a different picture, and Damian watched her pause over it. It showed a young Dick, somewhere in his late teens, at what looked like a charity event. He was looking at the camera, or whoever was behind it, with large pleading eyes as he tried to pull away from a young blond haired girl with a predatory smile.

“When was this?” Damian asked. 

She picked it up and brushed a finger over a slightly bent corner. “It was at a police charity event.” She said, a small smile playing on her lips. “We were supposed to go together, but he was late. Some costumed thing got in the way of his sense of time. So, when he did show up I left him to the wolves.” 

Damian frowned at her, and her smile turned into a grin. 

“I’m talking about all the girls whose mothers wanted a piece of the Wayne fortune. We were off again on again back then, and they took my spurning him a dance as proof that we weren’t dating.”

He scowled at the blond in the picture. “These girls wanted to be with him simply because he was Father’s heir? They should have known their intentions were obvious, and that their advances would not work.” 

Barbara shrugged. “That’s just how things are. You’ll see when you’re older. Besides, they didn’t only want to be with him for the money. He’s always been a good looking guy.” 

At this, Damian’s scow deepened. “Looks and money aside, Grayson can be insufferable. I don’t see why anyone would want to carry on a romantic relationship with him.” he paused, then grimaced. “No offence.” 

Barbara chuckled. “None taken, you’re still too young to understand anyway.” When Damian tensed, mouth pressing into a line, she laughed again. “No offense to you too, Lil D. You can’t help it, it’s not a brain thing, it’s a hormone thing.”

“Tt.” He said, letting her use of the nickname pass. “I don't’ believe it’s something I wish to understand.” 

She rolled her eyes at him and went back to the picture. “Anyway, I took this a few hours into the night when he was practically begging me for help. She was the third girl to latch onto him like a parasite in an hour.” Barbara glanced over at Damian. “I took pity on him after, and let him stay by my side the rest of the evening.” 

“I doubt he would have survived otherwise.” Damian said and Barbara laughed, fuller and freer than her previous ones. 

She wiped at hand at the corner of one of her eyes and asked, “Was that a joke?” 

Damian let himself grin at her. “Yes, though it was also the truth. Grayson is helpless without someone by his side.” 

Barbara nodded. “You’ve got that right.” 

They finished sorting, Barbara telling Damian a few more stories about Dick along the way. They were mostly of the embarrassing type, but she had one or two that showed him in a more heroic light as well. 

Damian insisted that she elaborate on most of them, and her stories carried them through putting the album together, Barbara writing notes on or under the pictures, while Damian taped them into their correct places. Too soon they’d finished the project, Barbara wrapping the book with a thick red ribbon to hold everything together. 

“Finished.” She said, adjusting the bow to sit evenly on the cover. “Dick’s going to love this.” 

Damian nodded at it, a little worry digging at him now that their hands were still. What if he didn’t? Barbara knew Grayson well enough, that was certain. But what if this wasn’t what he needed to fix what had been troubling him? 

A hand rested on his shoulder and Damian looked up at Barbara. She was smiling, a soft reassuring smile. 

“I promise, Damian. He’ll like it, and he’ll be ecstatic that it came from you.”

He pressed his lips together against a retort. He still couldn’t see how him working on it would bear any weight on Grayson’s enjoyment of the book. 

“He talks about you all the time, you know. How proud he is of you, and how he’s excited to see you grow. He does worry though, that you might not feel the same, and this will be proof otherwise.” 

Damian frowned at her, “How so?” he asked, trying to ignore the warmth that bloomed at the thought of Grayson’s pride in him.

“Because you put effort into making it. It shows you care about how he’s feeling, and wanted to do something he’d specifically like. That’s more important to him than any pictures.” 

He nodded, “Thank you. I couldn’t have done this without you.” 

She put the album in his hands, “You’re a good kid, Damian. I was happy to help.” 

He took it and looked down at it for a moment before deciding his next course of action. “Would you like to come with me to give it to him?”

She grinned, “I’d love to.” 


End file.
